(Tướng về hưu) Retired Israeli Gen. Giora Eiland, shown speaking at Israel’s Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv last year, has made cryptic comments (các bình luận bí ẩn) about an explosion that reportedly took place at an Iranian nuclear facility this week. Iranian officials have said the explosion did not happen at the facility.

Israeli officials said in a report Wednesday that a mysterious explosion at an Iranian nuclear facility two days ago was no accident.

The eyebrow-raising (nheo mày, ngạc nhiên)remarks surfaced in a Times of London story reporting that satellite images show smoke billowing (khói cuồn cuộn bốc lên) from the uranium enrichment facility (cơ sở làm giàu uranium) in the city of Isfahan.

“There aren’t many coincidences,” retired Major-General Giora Eiland told Israel’s army radio, noting that it was the second attack on an Iranian nuclear site in a month.

“When there are so many events, there is probably some sort of guiding hand, (bàn tay chỉ đường) though perhaps it’s the hand of God,” said Eiland, who is Israel’s formernational security chief (cựu chỉ huy an ninh quốc gia).

Two weeks ago, another suspicious blast on a military base near Tehran killed General Hassan Moghaddam, the head of Iran’s missile defense program, and 30 members of the Revolutionary Guard.

The Iranians claim it happened as they were testing a new weapons system designed to strike Israel.

An Israeli official quoted by the Times of London said that, too, was an attack aimed at thwarting Iran’s nuclear weapons program, but stopped short of saying (không hề, không đi xa hơn mức ) the country had anything to do with the strike.

There are “many different parties looking to sabotage (phá hoại), stop or coerce (ép buộc) Iran into stopping its nuclear weapons program,” the official said.

The Iranians have repeatedly denied they are building nuclear weapons.

The Israelis are also widely believed (được đa số mọi người cho là) to have nuclear weapons, but they also have never officially admitted that.